Many large manufacturing companies are enterprises which conduct operations in different geographic regions. Additionally, such companies often have distinct programs or business units within either the same or different geographic regions. For example, an aircraft manufacturer may have separate programs for each type of aircraft the manufacturer produces. Each of the programs may utilize a number of parts or materials which may also be utilized in various other programs. However, despite the fact that similar resources may be utilized by different units or programs, it is common for communication regarding such resources to be lacking.
Given the rapid pace at which technology develops, it is not uncommon for certain parts that may be essential to, or at least utilized in, aspects of several programs to be discontinued by a part manufacturer. Accordingly, the discontinued parts become obsolete, thereby creating a parts obsolescence challenge in which a mitigation strategy must be developed for reducing the impact of the part obsolescence event on the program. When parts obsolescence challenges arise in environments in which programs or business units have developmental “stove pipes” that isolate each program, the programs may each find themselves facing similar challenges without any way to become aware that others are also facing the challenge or that others may have already developed a mitigation strategy from which remaining programs might benefit. Furthermore, since each program or unit may only have a limited requirement for a given part, it may be difficult for any single program to lobby a part manufacturer against discontinuing a given part.
Although many companies have recently focused on enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems which are targeted at increasing productivity throughout an enterprise, no such system currently exists which can effectively overcome the problems described above. Moreover, although certain commercially available tools purport to offer information management such as, for example, TACTRAC, SMART, AVCOM and Q-STAR, these commercially available systems do not extend far beyond merely informing a company that a part is obsolete. Additionally, the commercially available systems typically require a license be taken for each site, however, such systems are not typically open to being tailored to the needs of each site.
Accordingly, in light of the discussion above, it may be desirable to provide a method, system, and computer program product capable of overcoming the problems described above by enabling parts obsolescence information to be shared throughout an enterprise rather than just within particular programs of the enterprise.